THE VISION OF THE PURPLE FLOWER

December 13th, 2023

 Lord. You BLOW my mind with your unfailing goodness. This morning, waking up and sitting in your word, you showed me how faithful you were to the people of Israel even when they strayed away from your righteousness, time and time again.
 As many of you should know, the people of Israel would put all their trust in God and then they would worry, take matters into their own hands, and things would get really bad really quick. Then repentance would come, they would trust God, but then the whole cycle would happen again.
 It’s like that in our society today too. It’s easy to say, “God, you are so good”, until times get tough and then we just kind of stress out and collapse-and then God lavishes out His mercy on us.
 You see, I had this vision today. It was of a little girl. It was spring. The grass was green and flowers in full bloom, all kinds spread out all over the yard, and she was playing in this front yard, picking the flowers as she skipped happily along. The little girl looks across the street and sees another yard full of all kinds of flowers, and not thinking twice, goes to pick them. In this, she has to cross a busy street, but she doesn’t think of that. She only sees the flowers. But her father is watching from the porch, and just before she steps in the street full of cars, he runs over to her and scoops her up in his loving arms because he loves her deeper than she could ever fathom. And what happens next? The father picks a flower from their yard, a purple one, and gives it to his daughter as he smiles. Then God says, that’s you and me, my daughter.
 In life there was a time where I looked towards the next best thing, not seeing what good things I already had, and looking directly over the hazards in the way, started towards my own pretty flowers in another yard. But God. God loves me so much that no matter how badly I mess up or how far I want to stray, He will still freely give me all His love and He is always looking out for me.
 This week, I’ve been tempted to miss the purple flowers in my own yard. Our ministry for my team has looked different everyday. Monday, looked like building relationships with kids at a children’s home. Tuesday, looked like helping restore life to a basketball court, painting and weeding. Today looked like painting the children’s home. This week has mostly just looked like loading up in a truck at a set time and going where our hosts have arranged for us to go-whether we know where we are going and what we are doing or not.
 It’s tempting to look at the teams that do have consistent ministry and think, “Lord, this feels a little pointless right now.” But the basketball court yesterday was my purple flower. I had a short discussion with my teammate about if we were discouraged at all because of the ministry situation. And then I thought, I didn’t have any expectations of what this trip would look like, but rather just left it in the Lord’s hands, knowing that He would provide. So, why should I be discouraged about a situation I didn’t have any expectations for in the first place? And it was a great day after that because I was reminded again that the Lord has a plan for me and I am here on this Race for a purpose, as we are all here on this earth for a purpose, whether we fully recognize the significance of that or not.
 So, as you read this, remember that the Lord has a plan and purpose for your life, and He will never fail you, even if it doesn’t quite meet your expectations, because His plans are bigger and better than we could ever imagine (example a-my life right now).
 2 Peter 1:24-25a says, “for, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

Blessings in Christ,
Gracie Yoder

(P.S.-and did I actually have a picture of a purple flower in my camera roll? Yeah.)